


Don't Mean A Thing

by sunnybunnysuga (lonewolfsong)



Category: GOT7
Genre: Beach Holidays, Californian! Mark, Inspired by Grease, M/M, Skateboarding, Summer Romance, Too Much In N Out, a good wholesome fic with a loving and support couple with a few bumps in the road, animal adoption, trainee! Youngjae
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-08-31 05:46:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8566294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lonewolfsong/pseuds/sunnybunnysuga
Summary: The last thing Youngjae expected to happen when he's training in LA is to have a summer romance. But a cute local boy named Mark will change that by skating his way right into his heart.





	1. In n Out

Youngjae knew the ocean along the coast of California was the same one he could see from his hometown Mokpo, but something about it was so much more magical than the one he saw every day. Maybe it was the cool breeze blowing across the water or the wide diversity of people basking in the summer sun across the sand. Or the live musicians, craftsmen, and fortunetellers that lined the streets. Or maybe it was the wonderful feeling of being free from everything that that chained him down in Korea.

Whatever it was, Youngjae already knew he loved LA and he hadn’t even been there for an hour yet. 

His family was going to spend the entire summer abroad. It was something they had been wanting to do for years, but since Youngjae was a trainee for an entertainment company, he had to focus on trying to improve his skills so he could debut. But as luck would have it, his company was sending him to train in LA for the summer to study dancing and his family was welcome to tag along as long as they paid for themselves. They had been saving up for years to go on a dream trip together and it was finally happening. 

The Choi family now had two and a half months away from Korea in a summer paradise. 

After sleeping through the long flight, Youngjae was raring to go and explore LA. However, he was the only Choi who seemed to think that was a good idea. His parents and older siblings were already yawning and they had only just gotten off the airplane. Youngjae was so excited, he had no idea how they could be tired.

They were in a foreign country! Somewhere completely new with different food and people and stores and clothes and all they could think about was going to bed? Where was the fun in that?

His older brother had to peel him away from looking out the big windows in the terminal (he could already see some palm trees if he squinted! Real California palm trees!) just to get him to follow them to customs.

His sister was kind enough to humor Youngjae and nod when he paused his excited chattering to breath (or was she just nodding off?) the entire bus ride to the beach house they were renting. When they finally got there, Youngjae was practically vibrating in excitement. He pressed himself up against the window and looked at everything with wonder sparkling in his eyes. Every so often he would say an english exclamation in amazement he had learned in the work book he had been studying since the trip was first planned.

When they finally reached the beach house, Youngjae was the first one out of the bus with his luggage. The cool, salty breeze brushed passed him and he couldn’t stop giggling with giddy excitement.

“We’re in LA!” He sang as he bounced up and down. “We’re in LA, LA, LA~!”

“Would you help me, Youngjae?” His mother was struggling wearily with her heavy suitcase.

“Yes, Ma’am!” He quickly went over and unloaded it from the bus for her.

She went to take it from him but Youngjae shock his head and tightened his grip on it.

“I’ll take care of it. Go inside and lay down.” He smiled at his mother sweetly.

“What a good son you are,” She patted his cheek affectionately. “Now, I know you’re excited and want to explore, but would you help us get everything in the house first? Then you can go.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” He chirped.

“Just promise me you’ll stay nearby, that way you won’t get lost.”

Youngjae promised and grabbed his suitcase in one hand and his mother’s in the other. Since he didn’t know who’s room was who’s yet, he left them in the front room to be dealt with later. The rest of the Choi’s filtered in sleepily and left their luggage in the same place. The beach house had three bedrooms, so they split it accordingly. Mom and dad got the biggest room, Youngjae and his brother got the medium sized room, and his sister got the smallest room to herself since she was a very light sleeper.

After bidding his family good bye, he changed into his swimsuit and a white t-shirt to go check out the beach. It was the perfect California day, the kind that you saw in the movies. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the bright sun beamed down to make the sand glitter in its rays. It was still fairly early, only around 11:00 o' clock, but the beach was already filled with people having fun. People were lying across towels and blankets along the shore to soak up some sun while others were splashing in the waves and laughing as they had the time of their life.

Youngjae was so excited. His mind was running a thousand miles a second with everything he wanted to do.

He wanted to eat ice cream on an actual beach in California like couples do in the movies. Or maybe go play in the ocean and collect shells to take back home as gifts to friends. Or eat lunch at that famous American burger place that idols always went to.

While Youngjae was trying to decide what he wanted to do first, a group of teenagers caught his eye.

At the edge of the beach, in between the shore and the city, was a skate park. It was pretty basic, but there were still many people on skateboards practicing tricks and hyping each other up.

There was a little girl on a small plastic board that was decorated in Disney princess stickers and every time she was able to skate for a few seconds without falling off right away, some of the teens would cheer for her and encourage her to keep trying. On the other side of the lot, a girl was doing a bunch of complicated tricks to impress her girlfriend who sat at the side lines cracking up whenever she messed up a trick. A handsome boy with brown hair was joking around with his friends while teaching them how to grind on a rail.

The atmosphere was fun and light and Youngjae subconsciously walked over to watch the skaters.

As he watched the boy teaching his friends, he was struck with an odd feeling of nostalgia.  
When Youngjae was in grade school, he had tried to learn who to ride a skateboard. He saw some boys skating on their way to school and he thought it was so cool. So he saved up his allowance, bought himself a cheap board and tried to teach himself. But when he couldn’t do any cool tricks after a week, he had given up on it, just like so many other hobbies kids picked up and forgot about while they were trying to find themselves.

Youngjae would never be a skater but he found his passion in singing, and that was what really mattered. Skateboarding would always be one of those things where he wished he had stuck with it as a kid but knew he’d never try to learn it in the future.

The boy with the brown hair was watching his friend approach the pipe for once last attempt to grind when he spotted Youngjae watching him. The second they made eye contact, Youngjae immediately startled and looked away with a faint blush on his cheeks. Shame slipped into his stomach as he realized he had been caught watching another person. There was nothing more embarrassing than that.

Youngjae looked around the skatepark, hoping to pass it off as having been looking around. But when he dared to glance over in the general direction of the boy, he had a mini heart attack because the boy was walking straight over at him there was no way he was going anywhere else.

Youngjae felt his cheeks grow more flush and he was trying to rack his brain for anything useful to say in the little english he knew.

There was no way asking if he liked apples would help in this situation.

The boy finally stopped in front of him and Youngjae felt like he was going to die right there. Not only could the boy ride a skateboard, but he was also gorgeous now that he was up close. The boy smiled charmingly and Youngjae felt his heart stutter.

“Wanna skate with us?” 

He said something in english and Youngjae totally blanked out. He knew what a few of the words meant but only in situated dialogue. If only he had studied his english harder and longer.

Then Youngjae realized the boy was giving him a strange look because he had just said something to him and Youngjae was just starting at him oh god this was just getting worse.

“Actually, I don’t speak english, sorry!” Youngjae quickly spat out the first thing that popped into his mind from the sentences he had memorized.

The cute boys eyes widened and Youngjae just was feeling more and more humiliated by this whole thing. After an awkward moment, the boy opened his mouth again.

“D-Do you speak Korean?” He asked shyly.

“You know Korean?” Youngjae’s mouth hung open in surprise. He knew LA was a diverse city, but this boy didn’t look Korean at all. How did he know the language?

The boy nodded and looked to the side. “I only know a bit. What’s your name?”

“Choi Youngjae!” He beamed, happy to know that there was at least someone in this foreign land who knew his native tongue. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Mark Tuan. Come hang out with us.” Mark jerked his head in the direction of his friends who were laughing at one of the guys who had fallen while helping him up.

“I don’t know how to skate.” Youngjae admitted and looked at the ground, embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Mark held his hand out to Youngjae to help him up. “We can teach you.”

He took Mark’s hand and let himself be led to the other teens. Youngjae was nervous that he’d be shuffled to the side because he didn't speak english, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.

Mark’s friends looked over as they approached and smiled welcomingly at Youngjae. After saying something quickly in english to the others, one of the guys got really excited and jumped up.

“You speak Korean?” He had a soft, somewhat gentle voice as he spoke that didn’t quite fit his tall and broad appearance. It was obvious from his lack of accent that Korean was his first language as well.

“Yes, I’m from Mokpo,” Youngjae said excitedly. How lucky was he to run into so many people who spoke Korean on his first day in america!

“It’s nice to meet you! It’s been awhile since I’ve met someone who’s from Korea, too. I’m Kim Yugyeom!” The boy bowed slightly.

“I’m Choi Youngjae,” He bowed back. “It’s nice to meet you, too!”

“You’re so nice to him; Why aren’t you nice to me, Yugyeom?” A boy with a loud voice and bleach blonde hair slung his arm around the taller one’s shoulders as best he could.

“Hyung, you taught me how to act like that,” Yugyeom replied cheekily. He quickly untangled himself from the other boys arms so he could run away from his fist.

Mark laughed, slightly awkwardly, as they watched the two boys run around for a bit before Yugyeom finally got caught and was dragged back to their group.

“Hi, Youngjae,” The other boy greeted, despite still having Yugyeom in a choke hold. “I’m Jackson! I’m from Hong Kong so my Korean is kinda funny, but I’m learning so please look after me!”

“Wow, you’re learning Korean? That’s so cool!” Youngjae was impressed. 

“Yugyeom kept making fun of me in Korean so I decided to pick it up so he wouldn’t have that power anymore.” Jackson explained, but Yugyeom just rolled his eyes.

“But, Hyung, I don’t need to hid behind a language to make fun of you. I can make fun of you in english, too.”

“You’re the maknae! Why are you so disrespectful?” Jackson smacked Yugyeom in the chest again, but the boy only laughed at him.

“Wait,” Youngjae’s eyes widened and he looked between Tall Yugyeom and Small Jackson. “Yugyeom is the youngest?”

“YES HE IS AND IT SUCKS SO BAD!” Jackson clenched his fish at the sky angrily. “Everyone always thinks I’m the youngest because I’m short but I’m the middle child!”

“It’s not Yugyeom’s fault you’re short, Jackson” Mark put his hand on his shoulder, ignoring Jackson’s sputtered protests. “But we’re getting off topic, Youngjae doesn’t know how to skate. We should teach him.”

Yugyeom and Jackson looked over at him with an excited expression that Youngjae wasn’t sure if he should be afraid of or not.

After being lectured on how to properly place his feet on the board and how to shift his feet on the board after he had pushed off, Youngjae was just anxious to get on the board. How hard could it be to stay on a glorified surfboard?

“Just focus on getting use to the feeling of the board right now,” Jackson gave him a pat on the back before stepping back so he could give it a go for the first time. “It’s going to take some time to get use to it.”

Youngjae nodded and furrowed his brow in determination. He wasn’t going to embarrass himself in front of all his new friends. As long as he tried his best and stayed positive, everything had to turn out okay.

Taking a careful step onto the skateboard, just like Mark had shown him, Youngjae pushed off. All of a sudden, the world started moving past him very quickly and his stomach fluttered in nerves. He could heard the others cheering him on as he skated several feet across the skatepark. But then when he got to a speed he felt comfortable with, he started to put his other foot on the board like Mark told him to. But he underestimated how this shift in weight would effect his balance and the skateboard lurged underneath him as he tumbled to the ground.

Youngjae winced as he slammed against the pavement and felt his arms and legs skim the ground. 

Mark, Jackson, and Yugyeom ran over to help him up with worried expression.

“Shit,” Jackson was the first to make it and held out his hand. “That looked like it hurt. You okay, man?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” Youngjae smiled even though his arms and legs were stinging in pain.

“Don’t lie,” Yugyeom scolded him and crossed his arms. “You’re bleeding.”

Youngjae looked down at his scrapes. “Oh, I am.”

“Good try,” Mark put his arm around Youngjae’s shoulder and led him off to one of the benches liking the park. “Let’s get you patched up so you can try again.”

“Hyung, I don’t know,” Jackson said as he trailed along after them. “He doesn’t have any protective gear. He’s lucky he didn’t hit his head.”

“Jackson’s right.” Yugyeom said. “If he falls again he’ll get even more hurt.”

Mark hummed in acknowledgement. He carefully sat down Youngjae on the bench and pulled out a first aid kit that was hidden under it. “It’s a good thing we were practicing new tricks; Otherwise we wouldn’t have brought the kit.”

“Thank you for helping me out,” Youngjae spoke softly.

“Of course,” Mark smiled slightly as he pulled out a disinfectant wipe. “We’re the ones who invited you to skate anyways. This is gunna hurt.”

He pressed the wipe to the wound. Youngjae hissed at the stinging and recoiled slightly but Mark tightened his grip on his wrist.

“I warned you,” Mark said pointedly as he brushed away some sand.

“I know,” Youngjae whined. “But it’s still going to hurt, warning or no warning.”

Mark laughed at that and Youngjae felt his cheeks flush pleasantly.

While Mark gently cleaned his wounds, Jackson and Yugyeom were chattering about random things with Youngjae. He learned that Jackson was from Hong Kong but had studied in Korea during college so that was the real reason he knew Korean. He was actually a world class fencer and was currently training in LA to try to qualify for the upcoming summer olympics in Tokyo. Yugyeom, on the other hand, was just still in college. He was a foreign exchange student majoring in street dancing. Since LA was one of the best places in the world to learn from the greatest, he had signed up for the exchange as soon as his university would let him.

There was a lull in the conversation after Yugyeom had shared his story. Youngjae looked at Mark, expecting him to start explaining who he knew Korean even though he clearly was and born and raised an LA boy. But Mark just grabbed a bandage from the first aid kit and pealed back the covering to put it over the scrape.

“Jackson,” Mark spoke up and looked at the boy. “I think I still have my helmet and pads in the garage by my bike. Go grab it so Youngjae can use them.”

“Like on the table by your bike or…?” Jackson clarified as he grabbed his skateboard and jacket to head out. 

“Yeah, I think I left them next to the toolbox.” 

“Got it. I’ll be right back.” Jackson get them an over dramatic salute, like the man on a mission he was, before skating off into the crowded beach walk.

Mark had finished taking care of Youngjae’s hands and was ready to move onto his legs.

“Put your leg on my lap,” Mark patted himself invitingly and Youngjae really hoped the hot summer sun would excuse his red ears. His knees stung as he carefully lifted his leg and put it on Mark’s lap.

His brows furrowed as he got a better look at the scrapes. They were deeper than the ones on Youngjae’s hands had been and some sand and small pebbles were in pledged in it. It was going to be even more painful to clean this. Mark had taken his fair share of spills while skating (that’s why he insisted they bring a first aid kit whenever they were going to practice tricks), and he knew exactly what it was like to have scuffed up knees.

“Wow, hyung, you really did a number on yourself,” Yugyeom scrunched up his nose. “That’s gotta really hurt.”

Mark handed the first aid kit to Youngjae.

“Hold onto that for me,” He said before going straight into it. If he put it off much longer, the boy would only physic himself out and it would hurt more.

Youngjae clutched the kit to his chest and squinted his eyes to endure the pain. But it was over quickly and Mark put the last bandaid on his knee with a nod.

“That should do it,” He looked at Youngjae with reassuring eyes. “If you need another bandaid later, just let me know.”

“Okay, thank you…” Youngjae smiled shyly as Mark packed up the first aid kit.

“Don’t feel too bad,” Yugyeom sat down on the arm of the bench since there was so where else for him to fit. “You fall all the time when you’re first learning.”

“I know,” Youngjae said softly. “But I’m still kind of embarrassed.”

“Don’t be,” Mark told him.

They were quiet for a moment while they simply watched people enjoying their beach day. It was nearing lunch time and the hot summer sun was at it’s highest point in the sky, but that wasn’t stopping people at all. In fact, it only seemed to encourage them to soak up the rays even more. 

A man with an ice cream cart walked by them with his bell ringing ever step he took and Yugyeom suddenly stood up.

“Youngjae, what’s your favorite kind of ice cream?”

“Vanilla?” He looked at the youngest curiously, but Yugyeom merely nodded before walking off.

“Get me chocolate, Yugyeom!” Mark yelled after his retreating back in english.

Now, as Youngjae watched Yugyeom’s retreating figure, he was hit with several conflicting thoughts all at once. Youngjae generally felt uncomfortable when people went out of their way to help him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful, it was more that he didn’t know how to respond to that kindness. He always felt indebted for some weird reason, even over something as silly as opening the door for him. All these boys, who he had only just met, were teaching him how to skateboard, taking care of him when he was hurt, going all the way to their home to get protective pads for him to use, and just including him even though they really didn't have to. Youngjae felt timid and had no idea where to even begin to try to feel more comfortable around them since his weird brain thing was making him feel inferior and indebted because of their kindness to him.

But he also liked it. They were all being nice to him, so that meant they saw something in him they liked, right? Maybe they could all become good friends while Youngjae was in the states. But then what would he do when he left for Mokpo again? Would their friendship end after a few months together?

And on top of all that, Mark was probably one of the most gorgeous boys Youngjae had ever seen in his short gay life and with every kind thing the american boy did he was just proving that he was totally Youngjae’s type. They had barely spent an hour around each other but Youngjae already knew his attraction to Mark was probably going to evolve into a massive summer crush.

Basically, Youngjae was overwhelmed but also very happy he made knew friends.

A couple minutes later, Yugyeom came back to them holding three ice cream cones, two chocolates, one vanilla. Mark put away his phone, which he had been texting with, and took one of the chocolates with a quick thanks. Yugyeom let Youngjae pick between the two remaining cones since he didn’t know what his new friend liked. Youngjae accepted the vanilla and smiled as he carefully licked away some drips.

Today was turning out to be the perfect day. He had tried to learn how to skateboard right next to the beach, ate ice cream with new friends, and was enjoying the perfect California beach day.

When Jackson finally came back with the protective gear, he was no pleased to see them eating ice cream without him.

“Traitors!” He bellowed across the park as he marched toward them, making several people look over at him in confusion.

Yugyeom laughed at his friend’s over the top anger and Mark just rolled his eyes.

“He gets like this sometimes,” Mark softly explained to Youngjae. “He’s high maintenance but he just needs al lot of attention.”

“How could you get ice cream without me!” Jackson cried when he reached their bench.

“We wanted to get something to cheer up Youngjae,” Mark held out his half eaten cone. “You can have the rest of mine.”

“I don’t want your pity ice cream,” Jackson huffed and crossed his arms with a pout. “You and Yugyeom always get ice cream without me. I feel left out.”

“Yugyeom pulls a hyung card on me and guilts me into buying him some.”

“Still!” Jackson remained indignant.

“I’ll get ice cream with you next time, Jackson.” Youngjae spoke up. If he wanted to be friends with them, he’d have to put effort into getting to know them. Taking Jackson out for ice cream was the perfect opportunity to spend more time with him, plus pacify this situation.

“Really?” Jackson beamed at the younger boy. Youngjae nodded with a smile and Jackson squealed in childish delight. “Youngjae is my favorite now!”

Yugyeom gave Jackson a look. “You’re so easy to please, Jackson.”

“Yes, I am,” Jackson said with a completely straight face. “But you’re so mean to me, so you wouldn’t know that, would you?”

The two kept arguing and Mark watch them for a bit before sighing and tuning to Youngjae.

“Come on, let’s go try skating again,” He said as he grabbed the protective gear from where Jackson had dropped it on the ground.

“Okay,” Youngjae took the elbow pads from Mark and started to put them on.

But then he realized he had a bit of a problem.

It was easy to put the pad on with one hand, but fastening with only one hand was a whole other story. Youngjae clumsily tried to stick the velcro together but it kept slipping from his grip or not fastening tight enough. He furrowed his brow and made a frustrated sound. But he kept trying, hoping for a different result this time. Mark let him try a few more times before reaching out to secure the straps for Youngjae.

“Let me help,” Mark said as he slipped on the other one.

“Thank you,” Youngjae mumbled with a shy smile. Mark let him put on his kneepads and helmet by himself but insisted on helping with his wrist guards. Youngjae tried to ignore the fluttering in his heart when their hands touched as Mark put them on for him.

Once he was all set to go, Mark handed him the skateboard and led him to the center of the park.

“Let’s take this slowly this time.” Mark took Youngjae’s hand as he stood on the skateboard. “I’ll walk along side you and catch you if you loose your balance.”

Youngjae nodded, praying the wrist guards hid how sweaty his hands felt all of a sudden. At Mark’s word, Youngjae put one foot on the skateboard and kicked off with the other a few times. His grip on Mark’s hand tightened slightly when he went to put the foot on his board, afraid that he would fall again. But with Mark running along side him and holding his hand to keep him steady, he succeeded this time.

He didn’t go very far or very fast, but he did it, and that’s what really mattered.

After Youngjae slowed to a stop, he turned to Mark with a smile on his face. He was beaming at Youngjae with a beautiful and proud smile. Jackson and Yugyeom had seemingly stopped fighting and we running over to Youngjae and cheering.

“You did it!” Jackson said when they reached the pair. He ruffled Youngjae’s hair affectionately.

“You’ll be doing kick flips in no time.” Yugyeom told him fondly.

After a few more successful runs, Mark let go of Youngjae’s hand and ran by his side as he skated. The Korean boy let out out a joyful laugh. With the breeze in his hair is kind of felt like he was flying. Youngjae jumped off the skateboard, since he didn’t know how to stop yet, but tripped his landing and went tumbling to the ground again.

But he only laughed more as he sat up. The safely gear had done their job and Youngjae hadn’t felt a thing. Mark ran over to him, the other boys hot on his heels, and helped Youngjae up with a worried expression.

“You okay?” He asked Youngjae, his brows scrunched down so much that a there was a cute wrinkle in between them.

“Yeah, I am, thanks to your pads,” Youngjae took Mark’s out stretched hand and pulled himself up. “That was really fun!”

“Now we just need to teach you how to stop,” Yugyeom grinned, but was interrupted by a giant yawn from Youngjae.

“No, what we should do is put a rocket booster on the end of the board and see how far Youngjae can go! Who needs to stop?” Jackson laughed at his ridiculous scheme.

All of a sudden, the exhaustion and jet lag that he’d been able to ignore in his excitement of actually being in California hit Youngjae like freight train. His eyelids felt heavy and he had to fight to keep them open.

“Whoa, stay up late playing video games, Youngjae?” Jackson teased him. “I think I could see all your teeth when you yawned!”

“Um, I just landed this morning,” His sentence was punctured by another yawn. “The jet lag must be catching up to me…”

“You just landed?” Mark looked at him worriedly. “Shouldn’t you be trying to get some sleep right now?

Youngjae hummed as he tried to rub the sleepiness from his eyes. “Yeah… But I got excited and wanted to explore the beach.”

“You should go get some sleep, Youngjae,” Jackson put his hand on the boy’s shoulder “Jet lag is rough. Taking a little nap now will help you adjust your sleep schedule.”

Youngjae just nodded in agreement before making a little noise as a realization hit him. He was so excited about exploring the beach, he hadn’t paid attention to what the beach house looked like or where he had walked too. “I don’t remember where I’m staying!”

“What?” Mark’s eyes widened. “You didn’t write it down or anything?”

“Oh yeah,” Youngjae smiled bashfully and pulled out his phone. Thank goodness Mark had such good common sense. “The address is in my notepad.”

They all sighed in relief.

“Hyung,” Yugyeom whined. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry, I’m just so sleepy I can’t think straight.” Youngjae put the address into the maps and pulled up a route he could walk to get back.

“Mark hopes you never think straight.” Jackson mumbled something under his breath in english and Yugyeom cracked up while Mark glared at him. Youngjae couldn’t help but feel a little left out of a joke.

“Let me me walk with you,” Mark said after he was done giving Jackson a death glare. “It would suck if you got lost because you’re sleepy.”

“You’ve already helped me out so much today,” Youngjae gestured vaguely to the skateboard and his bandages. “I don’t want to bother you anymore that I already have.”

“Nah, it’s whatever.” Mark smiled sweetly. “I want to walk with you.”

Neither Youngjae or Mark noticed the knowing looks Yugyeom and Jackson were giving them.

“Hey, Mark,” Yugyeom spoke up. “While you take Youngjae home, Jackson and I are going to go get some In N Out. Want any?”

“Really? It’s lunch time though. The lines are going to be out the door.”

“I really want some animal fries though.” Jackson chimed in with wide eyes. “Like, I can’t even think about eating anything else right now. Nothing else can curb this craving of mine.”

Mark had been friends with Jackson long enough to know that that exaggerated expression on his face meant he was up to no good. But what exactly that could be, he couldn’t figure out. He gave the fencer a hairy look before shrugging and giving up. A burger did sound pretty good. If whatever Jackson was planning came back and bit him in the butt in the future, he’d deal with it then.

“Yeah, just get me my usual.”

“You’d better pay me back,” Jackson teased him. 

Mark swiped his snapback off his head and hit him in the face with it.“I should be saying that to you, you’re the one who never pays me back when I buy you food.”

Jackson puts a hand on his chest with an overly offended expression on his face. He opens his mouth to defend himself but Mark just cuts him off.

“Make sure you actually get a strawberry shake this time, Not strawberry lemonade.”

Then he turns and leads Youngjae away from the others while Jackson sputtered his offense to deaf ears.

Youngjae didn’t remember much about the walk back to the beach house. He was honestly so tired he wouldn’t have been surprised if he just slept walked the entire way back. Mark had his eternal gratitude for making sure that he made it back safely and didn’t end up passing out in the sand. Youngjae did faintly remember Mark asking for his kakao so they could arrange to meet up later and laughing at something that the California boy said before they said good bye.

When he got to his bed he flopped down on it and fell into a dreamless sleep the instant his head hit the pillow.

***

“I walked a boy home, came back, and our number still hasn’t been called?” Mark gave Yugyeom and Jackson an unimpressed look as he walked toward them.

“Bro, we are literally sitting on the sidewalk because there’s no open tables inside or outside.”

Jackson and Yugyeom were leaning against the wall while they were waiting for their food to be ready. Rule number 1 to surviving in California, don’t go to In N Out at peak hours if you really wanted to be in n out really quick. In true LA fashion, the burger joint was bursting from the seams with everyone from teenagers to businessmen trying to get a greasy burger for lunch. One group of high schoolers had literally resulted to sitting on each others laps so they could all sit at a table together.

“Figures. This is why you shouldn’t have gotten In N Out during peak hours.” Mark flopped down next to his friends and took the receipt from Yugyeom.

They were number 12 and the speaker just informed them in a scratchy voice that order 99 was ready so they had some time before they’d be getting their food.

“I just want to give you more time with lover boy, Youngjae.” Jackson batted his eyelashes and Mark looked to the side, his ears turning bright red.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mark played innocent in a vain effort to avoid this conversation.

“Oh, don’t play coy with me, boy,” Jackson said in a mischievous voice and a twinkle in his eyes. “You had me go all the way to our house to pick up those old pads so you could skate with him. You can’t tell me your not interested.”

“… I never said I wasn’t…” Mark mumbled and Jackson let out an excited shriek.

“Yugyeom, do you know what this is?” Jackson turned to him.

“Uh, no?” The youngest had ignored their whole conversation in favor of monitoring a video he had taken of himself freestyling the day before.

Jackson just gave him an annoyed look. “It’s the start of a summer romance! You know what that is, right? Like in Grease!”

“It’s not a summer romance!” Mark scowled. “We only just met!”

“Not yet my friend but just you wait.” Jackson patted Mark’s shoulder. “Never fear! I will be your wing man all summer, just like I was today. No need to thank me.”

“Wingman? Oh you, mean when you ran off to get food without me?” Mark raised a brow.

“Details, details.” Jackson waved that off dismissively. “But you do admit you want to take that cute tourist on a date.”

There was a pause as Mark refused to meet Jackson’s eyes and the fencer kept staring at him to try to get him to confess. After a minute, Jackson resorted to poking at Mark’s chest to try to annoy him into talking.

“Fine!” Mark gave in, purely because Jackson is persistence and would get any information he wanted when properly motivated. “I wouldn’t mind getting to know Youngjae better, and that may or may not include eventually taking him on a date.”

Jackson squealed like a high schooler and hit his hand angst Yugyeom’s arm a couple times in excitement. Yugyeom winced and batted away his hands.

“Hyung, stop doing that! You say you don’t hit me hard but not all of us are olympic fencers!” Yugyeom whined as he rubbed his tender arm.

"I want full credit as your matchmaker when you two get together." Jackson talking over Yugyeom, but wrapped his arms around the younger boy to pacify him.

"Jackson, we don't even know if he's gay yet." Mark frowned. "For all we know, he's straight as a ruler."

"Bro," Yugyeom chimed in and gave him a look. "He tried bright red when you looked at him. There is no way he's straight."

"Really?" Mark looked hopeful.

Jackson nodded. "I'll eat my SnapBack if he's straight."

"Was it really necessary to say specifically that you'd eat a SnapBack and not just a hat?" Yugyeom asked.

"Of course!" Jackson said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I have to keep up my brand. I can't let people think I wear like fedoras or something."

"God forbid Jackson Wang's Wild and Sexy reputation be ruined." Mark had reached a point in his friendship with him where he just gave up questioning what he said and just humored him.

“Exactly!” Jackson put his arm around Mark’s shoulder, thankful for his ‘support’.

“Number 12!”

All three of them stood up and went to grab their food. As they ate, they joked around and around threw fries at each other and Mark couldn’t help but smile. A few years ago, this wasn’t where he envisioned being, but it wasn’t so bad. He had good friends, good food, and good vibes. 

That’s more than he had a year ago.


	2. Coco

The dance instructor called break and Youngjae crumpled to the ground, panting heavily. Dancing was an important part of being an idol, he knew that. But gosh darn it, he was a vocal trainee. He hadn’t danced at all before he joined JYP. He would honestly rather spend an entire day doing scales until his throat was killing him than spend an hour practicing his dancing. The feeling of tacky sweat and sour muscles was never pleasant.

Suddenly, something cold and wet touched Youngjae’s neck. He jumped away in surprise and let out a shout. Someone laughed mischievously and Youngjae glared at the offender. The other trainee handed him the water bottle he had pressed against Youngjae’s neck and smiled. He was tall and skinny with colorful hair and a a mischievous streak longer than his legs.

“You’re so easy to scare, Hyung!” The trainee, Bambam, mocked Youngjae’s reaction almost perfectly.

Youngjae laughed and hit the younger boy, easily forgiving his friend. “You’d react the same way, Bambam! Remember the spider?”

He pretended to be Bambam jumping a mile away from a small bug. The younger boy started whining but they both met each others eyes and cracked up at their cowardice.

“Anyways,” Bambam started again after they had finally calmed down. “Did you see my kakao message?”

“Which one?” Youngjae asked then took a swig of water.

“The one I sent you this morning!” Bambam hit his shoulder. “Do you ever even read my messages? You, like, never respond.”

“I do!” He looked at Bambam with wide, annoyed eyes. “But I just got here! The flight from Korea is like 13 hours! I’m exhausted! I came straight here when I woke up!”

“I thought you came here gay.”

Youngjae curled in on himself as they burst into another fit of childish giggles. One of the other trainees shot a glare at them for being noisy and they struggled to compose themselves.

“Youngjae, Youngjae,” Bambam wheezed as he thought of another joke. “I bet the reason your so happy all the time is you’re just so gay.”

This launched the boys into another fit of laughter. Youngjae smacked Bambam’s shoulder and the younger scooted away with a whine.

“Why do you always hit me when you laugh? All of my bruises are from you!”

“What? Why me?!” Youngjae said. “You were complaining about the bruises you get from your martial arts training like an hour ago.”

A chime interrupted their meaningless argument. They both glanced at their phones out of habit and Youngjae smiled when he saw that, for once, the alert came from his phone. Bambam always seemed to have a thousand people messaging him all the time.

Flyboy Tuan: Hey Youngjae! It’s Mark, you gave me your kakao last night

A moment later, there was another chime as Mark sent a smiling sticker.

“Oo,” Bambam wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he read the message over Youngjae’s shoulder. “You’ve been here for less than 24 hours and you’re already getting numbers? You’re such a flirt, Youngjae.”

“It’s not like that,” He said offhandedly as he tried to think of a reply. “We skateboarded together yesterday.”

“Since when do you skateboard?”

Youngjae was very quiet all of a sudden. Bambam laughed but scooted closer to his friend. “So are you going to message him back? Because you know he can see that you’ve read his messages. He might be waiting for a reply.”

“Oh no!” Youngjae’s eyes widened. “What do I say back? Should I say hi? Should I send him a sticker? Both?”

“I thought you said you just went skating with him?” Bambam said. “I thought it wasn’t like that. Why are you so nervous?”

Youngjae huffed at his friends teasing. “Just help me out already! You're better at this than me!”

“Okay,” Bambam might enjoy picking on his friends, but he was always there to help them out and cheer them on. “Just start by saying hi and tell him you had fun hangout with with him.”

As he typed out a reply, Youngjae nodded furiously like a good student learning from their teacher.

Jae Bird: Hi Hyung! I had fun skating with you yesterday! We should do it again! Maybe one day I’ll be as good as you!

He pressed send and then looked at Bambam for approval.

“Was that good?” Youngjae asked.

“… I don’t know why you’re asking me for advice, you basically just told him you’d be interested in seeing him a lot more.” Bambam said. “That was smooth, man.”

His eyes widened and he looked back down at the message he had sent. “Wait really?”

The little “1” by Youngjae’s message vanished.

“Ah, he saw it!” He was about five seconds away from panicking. “What if he thinks I’m being too forward? I didn’t mean it like that! I just want to get to know him!”

Bambam was laughing at his misery as he waited several tense seconds as Mark typed a reply.

Flyboy Tuan: sounds fun! I’m free tonight, if you are

“‘I’m free tonight, if you are.’ Oh my god, he’s so hitting on you.” Bambam said.

“Now what do I say?” Youngjae was definitely panicking.

Bambam scoffed. “Say yes, obviously! You don’t have any training tonight.”

Jae Bird: yeah let’s do that :)  
Flyboy Tuan: I’ll come pick you up. 5ish sound good? we can get food  
Jake Bird: okay! See you then!  
Flyboy Tuan: don’t forget to bring the pads with you  
Flyboy Tuan: :)

Both boys stared at the phone for a moment to process what had just happened.

“Wow, Youngjae,” Bambam turned to him with a smile. “You’ve only been here a day but you’re already playing around. I never would have though you’d be the type.”

Youngjae sputtered out protests and Bambam laughed. Before he could start teasing him even more, the instructor ended the break and they had to get back to work. While Youngjae did his best to focus and put his all into dancing, he couldn’t stop think about Mark in the back his mind.

***

After training, Bambam dragged Youngjae to his dorm room. He absolutely refused to let Youngjae go see the “cute american boy” without giving him a complete makeover. Bambam picked out an outfit and even a quick swipe of eyeliner to make his pretty brown eyes pop. After dealing him ready, Bambam sent him off with a “knock him dead” and a smack to the butt.

When Youngjae got back to the beach house, it was only four o’ clock. He still had an hourish to burn before Mark came to pick him up. His bags still needed to be unpacked, so he worked through that mundane task. But half an hour later, everything had been put away and he was left bored and anxious again.

He picked up the acoustic guitar he brought with him from Korea and strummed it idly. Playing was always a therapeutic thing for him. When he was younger, he wanted to study music and become a musical therapist. But life had other plans for him. Youngjae auditioned for JYP and, against all odds, got in. HIs life sine then had been a whirlwind of training and wondering if he was really good enough to make it in the cutthroat idol industry.

He wasn’t even sure if he really wanted to be a performer. He just wanted to always have music in his life somehow.

Youngjae looked out his window at the California beach lit by the warm sun. He figured that if he was going to just sit around play guitar to calm himself, he might as well enjoy the weather as well.

After taking one last look at himself in the mirror, Youngjae grabbed his guitar and went out onto the porch. He sat on a white rocking chair and leaned back leisurely. The ocean waves crashed and the seagulls called for mates, setting the tone for Youngjae. He listened to the world as he strummed along to the natural sounds around him.

Youngjae felt at peace.

He wasn’t good enough to improve anything, but he let the melody follow his stream of consciousness. It went from one song to another, blending together seamlessly. It was nice and familiar, unlike dancing. Youngjae reminded himself that this was what his was working for. He was working for music, not fame or wealth or anything selfish.

Someone called his name and Youngjae broke out of his trance.

It was Mark.

But as excited as Youngjae was to see Mark again, the precious angel he brought with him was much more important. Wrapped up in the California boy’s plaid shirt was a small puppy, just a white fluff really. Her little eyes were shut as she slept but they fluttered open when Youngjae came close. She peered at him curious when he held out a hand to her and sniffed him to she like him or not. She then gave his fingertips a tentative lick.

Youngjae fell in love with her instantly.

“I found her in a little box. I stopped and played with her for a bit, but she followed me when I tried to leave.” Mark spoke up.

“Does she have an owner?” Youngjae looked up at Mark and started when he realized how close their faces were. He was so entranced by the puppy he hadn’t noticed how both he and Mark leaned close to each other.

They gazed deeply into each others eyes for a moment before Mark looked back down at the puppy and broke the moment. “… No, I think she was abandoned.”

Youngjae scratched the puppy behind the ear and she leaned into him sweetly.

“What should we do, hyung?” He furrowed his brow. “We can’t just abandon her again. She’s so tiny.”

Mark was quite for a moment. “… Let’s take her to a shelter. If she has a chip, they can help get her back to her owner.”

Nodding, Youngjae set his guitar to the side and stood up. “Let’s go right now.”

“Wait, bring your guitar.” Youngjae gave Mark a strange look and he hastily explained. “She calmed down and fell asleep when you were playing.”

“Really?”

Mark nodded. “After the first song she fell right asleep. She had been struggling the whole way here.”

“The first song? How long were you here?”

Mark flushed slightly and nervously looked to the side. “Just a few minutes. You looked like you were enjoying yourself. I didn’t want to bother you. Y-You’re really good, Youngjae!”

Youngjae smiled and looked down at his guitar. “Really? Thank you! I really love music.” 

“I think that suits you.”

After researching where the closest shelter was, the pair headed out. It was a 20 minute walk from the beach so they decided to go on foot. Mark cradled the puppy in his arms (they had both pointedly not given her a name) and Youngjae found his eyes naturally looking at the sweet sight. The puppy, thankfully, slept peacefully most of their walk. But when she did wake up, Mark would lull her back to sleep by petting her soothingly and peppering her with kisses.

Youngjae’s poor gay heart could barely take how cute Mark looked with the puppy.

The employee who saw them wasn’t of much help. After examining the puppy, she informed them that the puppy was a maltese and had no chip. They could either give her to the shelter, where she’d have an unsure future or they could adopt her.

Youngjae’s frown deeper as Mark translated what she said. There was no way Youngjae could take in the puppy, he was going to return to Korea and wouldn’t be able to take him with her. And he couldn’t ask Mark to take on the responsibility that comes with taking care of a pet. Youngjae looked down at the tiny defenseless puppy who peered up at him and wagged her tail. He had already fallen in love with her.

Their only option was to give her to the shelter. She was so precious, someone else would have to take her in and give her a loving home, right? Youngjae frowned and scratched her behind her ear. She seemed to smile at him and licked his hand lovingly as he pulled it away.

Mark watched them before speaking up. “I’d like to adopt her.”

“Are you sure?” The employee asked. “This isn’t a decision to make lightly. Pets are a lot of work and responsibility.”

“I’ve been thinking about getting a pet for a while now.” Mark said. “When I found her, I was thinking about how nice it would be to take her home and she followed me. I guess it was meant to be.”

She studied him for a moment, sizing him up before nodding. “I agree, it’s probably best for you to take care of her. We don’t have a lot of room here, if we would be able to find a family for her or if she’d be put down. Plus, she seems really attached to you and your boyfriend already.”

Mark smiled shyly and giggled in embarrassment at her assumption. “He, uh, really has a way with animals.”

He just went along with it. It was easier than trying to explain the reality of the situation.

“Normally, we screen each family before allowing for adoption, but since you found her and she’s refused to leave your side, I think we can speed things up a bit. I’ll go grab the paperwork.”

She collected the puppy in her arms and left the room. Youngjae was quite for a second before launching into a thousand questions.

“Hyung, why is she leaving? What did she say? Who’s boyfriend was she taking about? Is the puppy going to be okay?”

Mark’s eye widened. It seemed Youngjae knew more english than he had originally thought. He filed that knowledge away for future reference so he’d watch what he said around Youngjae.

“She’ll be fine. I’m adopting her.” Mark avoided watched Youngjae’s reaction from the corner of his eye.

“You’re adopting her?!” Youngjae did not disappoint. A thousand emotions seemed to flutter across his face. It seemed to settle on a cross between flustered and happy. “Really?”

Mark nodded. “What should we name her?”

“We?”

The Californian boy nodded. “You helped me get her here. You should help me think of one.”

The two threw around a few names while they waited for the employe to comeback with the papers.

“Ssaldduck?” Youngjae laughed loudly. Even if it was at the name he picked out, Mark didn’t feel too bad about him making fun of it if it made Youngjae smile like that. “That sounds like a country girl’s name.” He put on an accent and pretended to be an old man. “Ssaldduck, give me your hand!”

Mark pouted childishly and shifted away from Youngjae. “Well, then you think of one.”

“Okay, then what about Coco?” Youngjae suggested.

“Coco? Hm…” Mark repeated it a few times, getting a feel for the name on his tongue. “Yeah, I like that.”

The employee came back with an arm full of papers. She set them downing front of Mark and offered him a pen.

“The puppy’s going through some final tests right now. Would you please fill these out while you wait?” She asked. Mark accepted them and began to read over the fine print.

After filling them all out and paying the necessary fees, Mark was now the proud owner of a maltese puppy named Coco. When they finally left the shelter, Coco ran long side them happily on her brand new leash. She seemed to understand that she had finally found a home because she kept looking up at Mark with pure adoration. She seemed attached to Youngjae too and would weave in between his legs (making them stop to get Youngjae untangled from her leash). Whenever they stopped at a crosswalk, she would lick whoever ankle was closest to her.

Mark looked up at the sky. A few hours had passed since he picked up Youngjae and the sun was already starting to set.

“It looks like we can’t skate tonight.” He said. “Sorry, Youngjae. I wasted your time.”

“It’s fine,” Coco had grown tired and started to trail behind them so Youngjae scooped her up in his arms. “I like hanging out with you.”

A warm feeling spread through Mark’s chest and he took a leap of faith.

“We can still get that food I promised,” He offered. Youngjae looked at him and suddenly Mark lost his nerve. “Only if you want to. I understand if you want to go home. You’re probably still jet lagged.”

“No, no!” Youngjae shook his head and uncontiously held Coco tighter to his chest. “I’d love to!”

“Alright,” Mark smiled and his nerves softened into butterflies flitting in his stomach. “Where should we go?”

“Hm…” Youngjae thought for a moment. “I really want to go to that famous burger place, the american one.”

“McDonalds?”

“No!” Youngjae scrunched his nose. “Those are everywhere, even in Korea. I want to go to the California one, um… What’s it called? … It’s the one with the palm trees…”

“Oh, In N Out?”

“Yeah, that one! I haven’t tried it yet!”

“Really?” Mark raised his brows. He knew that In N Out was famous overseas and many tourist went there as soon as they set foot off the plane.

“Really? You haven’t been to one yet?”

Youngjae shook his head. “ No, but it’s one of the things I really want to do while I’m here.”

Mark ignored the pang in his heart when he was reminded that Youngjae was only here temporarily. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Youngjae beamed and showed off the little bit of english he had learned when he studied before the trip.

Since they were in California, it wasn’t hard to find an In N Out after walking a few blocks. Mark went in and placed their order while Youngjae stayed outside and played with Coco.

The evening ended up not being as much of a bust as Mark feared. While it was far from the not-a-date skateboarding evening he had been hoping for (he wanted to hold Youngjae’s hand under the guise of helping him keep his balance), it was still nice. Besides, there was always tomorrow.

When Mark came out with their food, Youngjae’s stomach let out a loud grown and they laughed. He enthusiastically dug into his first In N Out burger and declared it to be way better than any other burger he had ever eaten. After Youngjae finished eating, he took his guitar out of his case and began to play idly. Mark learned that night, that if you were quite for long enough, Youngjae would start to sing. 

And what a treat that was. Mark had heard his fair share of talented singers, but Youngjae seemed to be blessed with the voice of an angel. Mark felt so at peace while the boy sang. He rested his head on his chin and was content with watching Youngjae. 

Just like the night before, Mark walked Youngjae back to the beach house. The feeling was a little bit different this time though. In a good way. The air felt charged with something, like their young friendship was teetering into the gray area of friendship and flirting.

After they said goodbye on the beach house porch and Youngjae disappeared inside, Mark linger for a moment longer than he should have on the front step. He thought in passing that it was a shame that he didn’t get to kiss Youngjae good night, but he quickly banished that though in the dark corners of his mind. Youngjae was a very sweet and pure boy he had only met the day before. While Mark definitely was attracted to him, it was far too early to have any thoughts about that. 

Mark forced himself to turn away from the beach house and walk back home.

***

Mark lived with Jackson and Yugyeom. The three of them share rent on a small starter home meant for newlyweds. The three of them might be the only single people in their whole neighborhood, but at least they didn’t have to worry about being loud enough to disturb others, like they did back when they had an apartment. Having their own place was expensive, but they found a way to make ends meet and they were much happier this way. Especially since they didn’t have to worry about being evicted over noise complaints anymore.

However, this meant that Mark was never able to avoid his friends, especially when they want something from him. In this case, information about his evening with a certain foreigner.

Mark had hoped he’d be able to sneak up to his room without either Jackson or Yugyeom catching him, but he should have known that it was useless to avoid the inevitable.

He punched in the code to get into their garage and Coco stirred in his arms for a moment to observe their surroundings before tucking her snout under his bicep. Mark unlocked the door into the house and peeked in to see if there was anyone around.

The hallway was clear. Mark put a finger to his lip to tell Coco to stay quiet as he snuck down the hall. He barely took a few steps before-

“MARK, YOUR HOME! HOW WAS YOUR DATE?”

Jackson came barging in and made Mark jump. Coco perked up and looked at the new person. Jackson’s eyes widened when he spotted the puppy.

In the span of about 2 seconds, Mark realized that maybe impulsively adopting a dog without consulting his housemates was not one of his smartest ideas and his roommates pestering him about his growing crush was the least of his concerns right them.

“Is that a puppy?” Jackson asked. “Why do you have a puppy?”

Mark quickly held Coco out to Jackson. She was so cute, he had to fall in love with her too.

“Her name is Coco. I adopted her.”

“Adopted?” Yugyeom heard the commotion and came to find them. “What’s going on?”

Then he saw Coco and understood. “You adopted a puppy?! You went on a date and come back with a dog.” Yugyeom shook his head. “Only you, Mark Tuan.”

“She was abandoned.” Mark pouted but wasn’t all that upset. At least neither of them immediately disapproved of Coco. “I found her in a box and she followed me. She’s so small, I couldn’t just leave her.”

Yugyeom and Jackson were quiet for a moment as they processed. They exchanged an unsure look.

“She’s really cute, but what if she has an owner?” Jackson reached out and let Coco smell his hand.

“She doesn’t. Youngjae and I took her to the shelter and she doesn’t have a chip or match any of the descriptions of missing dogs.”

“So you decided to adopt her.” Yugyeom raised a brow.

“Yes.”

“Without talking to us about it first.” Jackson raised the same eyebrow.

“Yes…”

They were both quiet for a moment as they looked at the puppy between them. Coco didn’t seem to read the atmosphere because she wiggled instantly until Mark set her down in the ground. She padded over to Jackson and stuck herself in between his feet and peered up at him. Jackson sighed and smiled down at her. “You’re lucky she’s cute. But next time, talk to us before you do something that will effect us all.”

“Sorry,” Mark mumbled. “I didn’t really think about it.”

“It’s okay this time,” Yugyeom put a hand on his shoulder. “Just don’t do it again.”

“I won’t,” Mark nodded and saw his chance. “It’s been a long day, I’m going to head to bed.”

He tried to quickly squeeze past his housemates to escape to the safety of his room but Jackson grabbed him and put his arm around his shoulder.

“You didn’t think we were going to let you go without telling us about your date, did you?” Jackson gave him a shit eating grin and Mark groaned internally. 

It seemed like his roommates were going to be relentless about this. It was probably best if he just got it out of the way.

“What date?” He said. “You’re exaggerating things again. I just hung out with Youngjae.”

“And brought home a dog.” Yugyeom added on.

Jackson gasped dramatically, like the walking telenovela he was. He clutched Mark’s arms with wide eyes and he whispered conspiringly. “Is coco your love child? Mark! You only met Youngjae yesterday! You can’t be the baby daddy already!”

“Shut up,” Mark groaned and covered his face. “We barely were able to hang out because of her. The shelter took a long time so after that we went to In N Out and I walked him home. Nothing happened.”

“It’s okay,” Jackson patted his shoulder sympathetically while Yugyeom was cackling. “Being a father is hard work. It takes up all your free time.”

“I’m leaving,” Mark said.

He left Yugyeom and Jackson to crack jokes at his expense and went to his room. Coco followed him closely and slipped in his room behind him. Mark flopped down on his bed and let out a sigh. Today had been a strange day, but not in a bad way. He hadn’t expected to come home with a puppy in tow but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it when he remembered how sad Youngjae had looked at Coco when they found out she didn’t have a family. 

Plus, he got to hear Youngjae sing while he played his guitar. Not a bad day at all.

Coco whined at the foot of Mark’s bed and he leaned over to pick her up. She settled into his chest and huffed happily when he pet her softly. 

The boy and his dog fell asleep like that, perfectly content in each other company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I caught the nasty cough thing that's been going around and was out for a week solid. I had fever dreams about this fic though. That amused me. Dress warmly if it's cold where you live and look after your health you guys.

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this plot bunny for a while! I was going to wait until I was done writing it and just post the whole thing at once, but I'm too excited! I want to know what ya'll think! I have a lot of cute things planned out, so I hope you'll stick around with me until the end! (Also, right now it looks like this is going to have 6 chapters, but that is subject to change!)


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